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Bits from Dennis Lindsey Interview, 4/10

On off-season considerations
There’s been enough times with arrows pointed in certain directions that you don’t wanna overreact and get reckless. But I think, it’s safe to say we’re, a couple of the debates and deliberations are maybe a little ahead of schedule, if you will, and, about what the right thing to do to complement the group. Do you even try to complement the group? Do you just let ’em continue to grow, and, so you don’t upset the, you know, the chemistry that you have?

Our chemistry’s really strong and we feel good about it, but it’s fairly new…There’s a lotta questions that we have to get with coaches in the off-season and share, and think about what we need from a skillset standpoint, what we need from an experience standpoint, and maybe some things that the coaches don’t want as well.

So, it’s safe to say that, you know, we’d like to be delicate and precise if we add to the group, and sometimes that’s possible, and sometimes that’s not. And if it’s not possible, then we’ll slow-growth it and go step by step with a very young but promising group. …

Certainly with, you know, our three picks this year, I think, you know, to be frank, there’s a decent chance we could look at some trade options that may be available to us.

What’s the most important thing when you’re analyzing college players?
Boy, yeah, there’s so many things. Ther–the medical is huge. The, you always wanna get back to your previous scouting reports and weigh those against the video file that you built up, and make sure you saw what you saw in the context in which you saw it.

And so, the interview, and just, no, there’s no one question that you can ask that is gonna provide you a certainty whether this guy’s a fit. But there’s an overall vibe and a feel that a player would, you know, typically puts off. …

So, you know, you get that gut. You get that feel on which guys could fit ya, which guys are humble enough to be able to handle a, an honest, you know, draft assessment, and you know, where you could fit, and you’re gonna have to bide your time and you may have to play in the D-League…

Typically we haven’t skipped steps with giving a young guy too much too soon, and so, when you deliver all those messages, you know, how receptive guys are to that, you know, is a big part of the equation as well. So, there’s no one piece, but there’s a lotta things that you’re trying to get as complete a picture as possible.

**Dennis Lindsey on whether there are GMs out there he doesn’t care to discuss trades with, Unintentional Dirty Quote Machine: There’ve been those guys in the past. You know me, I wouldn’t name names. But yeah, you get chemistry with some guys, and you feel like you’re able to pull things out…You need to anticipate a little bit of what someone may want, and then you gotta figure out whether you’re willing to give up what they want to get what you want.

Is there a value to Joe Ingles’ personality to your club regardless of how he plays? What’s a guy like Ingles’ future with the Jazz?
We’ll see going forward, but I’ll say this. He has exceeded our expectations as a teammate, as a competitor, as someone who’s been ready to play NBA basketball. And look, a real key asset that we have is Dante Exum, and we didn’t want Dante to be on an island. But that’s not enough to get Joe or anybody else on a roster. You have to have merit as a player. …

There’s certainly an intangible quality that Joe and teammates like Joe have, that can make a group and individual players feel good about themselves. But at the end of the day, we’ll, you know, he’s an NBA player. I think he’s proved that this year, and he’s a free agent, and I think he’ll have a good market, and hopefully his experience has been one that’s been good enough here that, you know, he’ll consider us when the time comes.

What’s the one thing about Quin Snyder that has convinced the team to buy into everything he’s selling?
Oh boy. I don’t, there’s so many. And so, you’d have to choose from the top. I’d say driven. He’s a driven man, and you, the, you know, the looks and the charisma, intelligence, communicate — communication skills, those are all easy marks for Quin, and in a weird way, ha–maybe even worked against him at times, just based upon misconceptions.

But he’s very driven, and then you add in a dose of humility, you know, a pinch of curiosity. I think, he, he’s just, he’s able to tread a fine line of being able to really coach and lead a group in a strong, serious way, but yet, you know, the group likes him and they respond to him.

So, I think because of that, and his, you know, previous experience of being a head coach at Missouri and in Austin, he’s got a couple different pitches he can deliver, and it’s not always a fastball. I think he knows when to change speeds on the team, and so, you know, I think as he continues to gain experience and understands this group and as the group really has a, even a clearer ideal and more continuity going forward, I think he’ll be able to really organize us and lead us effectively. …

At the end of the day, I think relative to game plans, I don’t think players — they’re very diverse in their backgrounds. So, I don’t think they think about black, white, orange, yellow, big, small, played in the league or not. They want to know that a coach can give ’em a plan to win, and how they’re part of it.

And so, I think if a coach can consistently stay on point on all of those, you know, just fundamental bedrock things to be a head coach in the league, that they can have a successful career, you know, in the NBA, and yet come from much different backgrounds with, no matter what your color or nationality or religious beliefs or your basketball-playing experience as a player, you know, I don’t think, I think players see through that real quick.

And so, fortunately, Quin’s, you know, unique in many ways, but I think that our group of players see those core qualities, and hopefully that means a, just a real long-term, solid relationship here with the Salt Lake City community. (1280)